Ben Shapiro's got a new book, at Amazon, Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV.
As you know, I quit watching cable news, and I wasn't much for television sit-coms and talk show as it is. I like movies, but then, I can sort through the leftist clap-trap.
Sadly, most Americans don't really appreciate how powerfully they're being programmed toward leftist issues. And the ones that do, a lot of them Trump voters, are demonized as racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, or what have you.
The culture war is real.
At Prager University:
Friday, December 29, 2017
Jennifer Delacruz's Friday Forecast
This is a woman who could make you happy, heh.
So sweet.
At ABC News 10 San Deigo. It's going to be a nice day:
So sweet.
At ABC News 10 San Deigo. It's going to be a nice day:
So, Totalitarian Leftists Want the Vanity Fair 'Hillary Knitting' Writers Fired?
I hate politics more and more, especially since you can't say anything anymore without risking your entire livelihood, if not your very life.
Elizabeth Bruenig's a radical leftist who's blocked me on Twitter, but I agree with her here.
At WaPo, "No, the Vanity Fair staffers behind the Clinton video shouldn’t be fired."
Elizabeth Bruenig's a radical leftist who's blocked me on Twitter, but I agree with her here.
At WaPo, "No, the Vanity Fair staffers behind the Clinton video shouldn’t be fired."
"The next time you get upset online, keep this in mind: You’re gonna be okay." - @ebruenig with the radical argument that people ought to consider the potential real world consequences of their online rage https://t.co/8olkMQBbe0— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) December 29, 2017
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Humongous Jemma Lucy Pops Out of Her Bikini
Wow!
At Taxi Driver, "Jemma Lucy's Boob Pops Out of Her Bikini Top."
More at London's Daily Mail, "Jemma Lucy flashes her eye-popping assets in Spain."
At Taxi Driver, "Jemma Lucy's Boob Pops Out of Her Bikini Top."
More at London's Daily Mail, "Jemma Lucy flashes her eye-popping assets in Spain."
ICYMI: Omar El Akkad, American War
I didn't rank books in 2017, but American War is one of my top five, for sure.
Don't miss it.
At Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War.
Don't miss it.
At Amazon, Omar El Akkad, American War.
Post-Christian America?
Look, I think American War is practically non-fiction, so Ima say no.
But check at NRO:
But check at NRO:
Can America Survive as a Post-Christian Nation? https://t.co/nJ68MPcyZg via @DavidAFrench pic.twitter.com/UY63qr9Qud— National Review (@NRO) December 28, 2017
Lena Nersesian
This is the lady who let her best friend bonk her boyfriend, in an "off-Twitter" threesome.
She's sex positive, to say the least.
She's sex positive, to say the least.
China’s Cover-Up
From Orville Schell, at Foreign Affairs, "When Communists Rewrite History":
Even experts on Chinese history find it difficult to keep track of all the lethal “mass movements” that shaped Mao’s revolution. https://t.co/0JqaEyXvY7— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) December 26, 2017
The Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong’s “permanent revolution” destroyed tens of millions of lives. From the communist victory in 1949 in the Chinese Civil War, through the upheaval, famine, and bloodletting of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, until Mao’s death in 1976, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set segments of Chinese society against one another in successive spasms of violent class warfare. As wave after wave of savagery swept China, millions were killed and millions more sent off to “reform through labor” and ruination.More.
Mao had expected this level of brutality. As he once declared: “A revolution is neither a dinner party, nor writing an essay, painting a picture, or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely, gentle, temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
Today, even experts on Chinese history find it difficult to keep track of all the lethal “mass movements” that shaped Mao’s revolution and which the party invariably extolled with various slogans. Mao launched campaigns to “exterminate landlords” after the Communists came to power in 1949; to “suppress counterrevolutionaries” in the early 1950s; to purge “rightists” in the late 1950s; to overthrow “capitalist roaders” during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s; and to “rectify” young people’s thinking by shipping them off to China’s poorest rural areas during the Down to the Countryside Movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The ideological rhetoric obscured the extremism of these official actions, through which the party permitted the persecution and even the liquidation of myriad varieties of “counterrevolutionary elements.” One of Mao’s most notable sayings was “the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” Long after his death, his successors carried on in that tradition, most visibly during the Tiananmen Square massacre and the ensuing crackdown that the CCP carried out in response to peaceful protests in 1989, which led to untold numbers of dead and wounded.
Today, China is enjoying a period of relative stability. The party promotes a vision of a “harmonious society” instead of class struggle and extols comfortable prosperity over cathartic violence. Someone unfamiliar with the country might be forgiven for assuming that it had reckoned with its recent past and found a way to heal its wounds and move on.
Far from it. In fact, a visitor wandering the streets of any Chinese city today will find no plaques consecrating the sites of mass arrests, no statues dedicated to the victims of persecution, no monuments erected to honor those who perished after being designated “class enemies.” Despite all the anguish and death the CCP has caused, it has never issued any official admission of guilt, much less allowed any memorialization of its victims. And because any mea culpa would risk undermining the party’s legitimacy and its right to rule unilaterally, nothing of the sort is likely to occur so long as the CCP remains in power...
Josh Meyer Gets an Echo Chamber Beat-Down
This is really good:
Twitter mob attacks by a name-calling scrum of mid-level bureaucrats, “security correspondents” for instant news outfits like Buzzfeed, interns at various NGOs and their self-credentialed “expert” bosses, partisan bot herders, and their Lord of the Flies puppet-masters are part of the price of doing journalism these days. Write something negative, and you’ll get dirtied up—and maybe some of the dirt will stick, who knows. These attacks are intended to be punitive. Brave or foolhardy reporters who deviate from the party line—the party in question being the Democrats, of course, since the representation of conservatives in newsrooms is generally reported to be somewhere in the single digits—and especially their colleagues watching from the sidelines, are meant to absorb a simple but all-important lesson: Get on the team, or else shut up. Watching even seasoned pros succumb to this kind of adolescent pressure game and publicly suck up to bullying flacks while throwing shade on members of their own profession is a depressingly normal occurrence, which shows that the two once-separate professions—partisan flackery, and reporting the news—have merged into a single, mindless borg.
Obama derailed secret fight against Hezbollah for Iran Deal... https://t.co/XZglS6kSNx— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) December 18, 2017
That's the thing @Tvietor08 your echo chamber keeps saying my @politico piece is wrong but offer zero specifics. I'm gonna take the high road and not respond further until you do. Meantime, happy holidays y'all. Btw, don't you supporters of Iran Deal also have "an obvious POV"? https://t.co/suI1dxnr2G— Josh Meyer (@JoshMeyerDC) December 21, 2017
Why journalists joined a Twittermob of former mid-level Obama bureaucrats and intel officers to attack a journalist for doing journalism @tabletmag https://t.co/sYKeovN7fF— Lee Smith (@LeeSmithDC) December 27, 2017
More Alexis Ren (VIDEO)
She's got over 11 million followers on Instagram. *Eye-roll.*
Nice babe though.
Nice babe though.
Nina Agdal Jumps for Joy
At London's Daily Mail:
BONUS: At WWTDD, "Nina Agdal Topless."
Bikini-clad Nina Agdal jumps for joy as she shows off her toned body during leisurely day on sun-soaked beach https://t.co/Lu6lQz9QDZ— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) December 28, 2017
BONUS: At WWTDD, "Nina Agdal Topless."
Joseph Heller, Catch-22
I'm reading this. It's an amazing book. Kinda like a manifesto for wise guys, heh.
At Amazon, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (50th Anniversary Edition).
At Amazon, Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (50th Anniversary Edition).
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
President Trump's Political Base Unshaken
Well, it's been almost a year in office. We have the midterms in about 11 months and then we're off to the 2020 races. For the life of me I don't know how President Trump's going to pull off reelection. I thought this immediately upon his election in 2016, with the entire political establishment against him: Democrats, establishment Republicans, the corrupt media, Hollywood, and just about every other cultural institution you can think of. I love what he's doing --- and I believe he's changing this country for the better --- but the odds of beating back all the forces of leftist hatred seem insurmountable.
It'll be a miracle. We need it, though, badly, so I'll pray.
In any case, here's the Associated Press, "In the heart of Trump Country, his base’s faith is unshaken":
It'll be a miracle. We need it, though, badly, so I'll pray.
In any case, here's the Associated Press, "In the heart of Trump Country, his base’s faith is unshaken":
.@AP spent the year traveling to communities that flipped from blue to red and helped propel Donald Trump to the White House. How do they think he's doing? Read today’s story: https://t.co/xki14Uxi8F
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 28, 2017
Find the Trump Country series here: https://t.co/c4f0f1jatD
SANDY HOOK, Ky. — The regulars amble in before dawn and claim their usual table, the one next to an old box television playing the news on mute.More.
Steven Whitt fires up the coffee pot and flips on the fluorescent sign in the window of the Frosty Freeze, his diner that looks and sounds and smells about the same as it did when it opened a half-century ago. Coffee is 50 cents a cup, refills 25 cents. The pot sits on the counter, and payment is based on the honor system.
People like it that way, he thinks. It reminds them of a time before the world seemed to stray away from them, when coal was king and the values of the nation seemed the same as the values here, in God’s Country, in this small county isolated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Everyone in town comes to his diner for nostalgia and homestyle cooking. And, recently, news reporters come from all over the world to puzzle over politics — because Elliott County, a blue-collar union stronghold, voted for the Democrat in each and every presidential election for its 147-year existence.
Until Donald Trump came along and promised to wind back the clock.
“He was the hope we were all waiting on, the guy riding up on the white horse. There was a new energy about everybody here,” says Whitt.
“I still see it.”
Despite the president’s dismal approval ratings and lethargic legislative achievements, he remains profoundly popular here in these mountains, a region so badly battered by the collapse of the coal industry it became the symbolic heart of Trump’s white working-class base.
The frenetic churn of the national news, the ceaseless Twitter taunts, the daily declarations of outrage scroll soundlessly across the bottom of the diner’s television screen, rarely registering. When they do, Trump doesn’t shoulder the blame — because the allegiance of those here is as emotional as it is economic.
It means God, guns, patriotism, saying “Merry Christmas” and not Happy Holidays. It means validation of their indignation about a changing nation: gay marriage and immigration and factories moving overseas. It means tearing down the political system that neglected them again and again in favor of the big cities that feel a world away.
On those counts, they believe Trump has delivered, even if his promised blue-collar renaissance has not yet materialized. He’s punching at all the people who let them down for so long — the presidential embodiment of their own discontent.
“He’s already done enough to get my vote again, without a doubt, no question,” Wes Lewis, a retired pipefitter and one of Whitt’s regulars, declares as he deals the day’s first hand of cards.
He thinks the mines and the factories will soon roar back to life, and if they don’t, he believes they would have if Democrats and Republicans and the media — all “crooked as a barrel of fishhooks” — had gotten out of the way. What Lewis has now that he didn’t have before Trump is a belief that his president is pulling for people like him.
“One thing I hear in here a lot is that nobody’s gonna push him into a corner,” says Whitt, 35. “He’s a fighter. I think they like the bluntness of it.”
He plops down at an empty table next to the card game, drops a stack of mail onto his lap and begins flipping through the envelopes...
Danielle Gersh's Wednesday Forecast
Make way for a little sunnier and warmer weather.
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle:
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle:
Chrissy Teigen's Flight to Nowhere
Actually, it was LAX to LAX, round-trip, eight hours --- because one passenger was able to board without at ticket.
Ms. Chrissy wasn't pleased, and for good reason.
Ms. Chrissy wasn't pleased, and for good reason.
a flying first for me: 4 hours into an 11 hour flight and we are turning around because we have a passenger who isn’t supposed to be on this plane. Why...why do we all gotta go back, I do not know— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) December 27, 2017
Chrissy Teigen tweet-storms about surviving her epic 8-hour flight to nowhere. She was supposed to be going to Tokyo, but ended right back in L.A., because of an apparent mix-up. https://t.co/yTOTYCGfMQ pic.twitter.com/mAgkC480lX— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) December 27, 2017
Clare Richards Sexy Photos
At Drunken Stepfather, "INSTA-THOT CLARE RICHARDS LOOKING LIKE A NUDE CORPSE OF THE DAY":
Clare Richards is some instagram nude model who instagram hasn’t deleted for whatever reason…
She promotes some subscription model bullshit where she gets naked for some real fucking desperate dudes who have too much money on their hands…like so many of these naked on instagram girls who take it upon themselves to be entrepreneurial, using their nudity to get fucking paid, and like Cam girls, they get paid for it…as they should, to at least encourage the non nude women to deliver the goods when they realize being a waitress or school teacher is way more hours of work than pulling out their tits…
Shocking Scale of Homelessness in Downtown Los Angeles
At London's Daily Mail:
Shocking scale of homelessness in Downtown LA is exposed in dashcam footage https://t.co/jx8PysE92P
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) December 27, 2017
#LosAngeles is an international disgrace. 😡👎 #Democrats cc. @EricGarcetti https://t.co/rc5eKjPmSZ
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) December 27, 2017
Holiday Shopping Numbers Illustrate Success of Trump's Policies, Democrats' Difficulties
From John Hinderaker, at Power Line:
I wonder if economic indicators are still the prime variable in elections these days? Perhaps the state of the economy will be important next November, but culture seems to be driving so much politics currently that I have my doubts. Republicans can't be complacent, either way. Watch for President Trump to increasingly mind his comments (and his tweets) as next year's congressional races approach.
The Wall Street Journal reports on holiday shopping:More.
Fueled by high consumer confidence and a robust job market, U.S. retail sales in the holiday period rose at their best pace since 2011, according to MastercardSpendingPulse, which tracks both online and in-store spending.Emphasis added.
Sales, excluding automobiles, rose 4.9% from Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve, compared with a 3.7% gain in the same period last year.
***
Unlike in past years, when spending was driven by high-income shoppers, this holiday a broader swath of the population opened their wallets, encouraged by rising wages and low unemployment, analysts and economists said.
“Fewer people are living paycheck to paycheck,” said Chris Christopher, executive director of economic research firm IHS Markit. “There is a lot more spending from the lower- and middle-income groups, while the upper-income groups are splurging.”
In next November’s elections, the Democrats won’t just be running against Republicans. They will be running against reality. Take the tax cut. I won’t rehash all of the crazy things Democrats have said about it; they have been compiled at many locations. But simply put, it is insane for Democrats to allege that a tax cut will raise most people’s taxes, or that cutting corporate income taxes to an internationally-normal level will destroy the economy...
I wonder if economic indicators are still the prime variable in elections these days? Perhaps the state of the economy will be important next November, but culture seems to be driving so much politics currently that I have my doubts. Republicans can't be complacent, either way. Watch for President Trump to increasingly mind his comments (and his tweets) as next year's congressional races approach.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Glenn Frankel, High Noon
At Amazon, Glenn Frankel, High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic Hardcover.
Wilbur Smith, A Falcon Flies
*BUMPED.*
Wilbur Smith is really good!
At Amazon, Wilbur Smith, A Falcon Flies: A Spectacular Epic of a Wild Continent and the Few Who Dared to Tame It.
Wilbur Smith is really good!
At Amazon, Wilbur Smith, A Falcon Flies: A Spectacular Epic of a Wild Continent and the Few Who Dared to Tame It.
Jay Leno's Muscle Cars (VIDEO)
Man, Jay Leno's a fine car collector!
He's got the old 1960s-era Dodge Challenger in there, and it's totally rudimentary. He's got it parked next to the new Dodge Challenger Hell Cat, heh.
He's got the old 1960s-era Dodge Challenger in there, and it's totally rudimentary. He's got it parked next to the new Dodge Challenger Hell Cat, heh.
Danielle Gersh's Day-After-Christmas Forecast
It's mild weather. I don't know, perhaps down to the 40s overnight, if that? Otherwise, a little cool and overcast.
But here's the lovely Ms. Danielle to tell you all about it, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
But here's the lovely Ms. Danielle to tell you all about it, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:
Insanity Studies Major
That's about the gist of it, sheesh.
At the Other McCain, "How About an ‘Insanity Studies’ Major? UPDATE: ‘Queer’ With ‘Psychotic Episodes’ and ‘Endless Mental Fog’."
At the Other McCain, "How About an ‘Insanity Studies’ Major? UPDATE: ‘Queer’ With ‘Psychotic Episodes’ and ‘Endless Mental Fog’."
It's as if somewhere, there's an advice columnist:
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
Q. My daughter is mentally ill. What should I do?
A. Send her to college to major in Gender Studies.
In all seriousness: Is it really a good idea to spend money to send psychologically disturbed people to college? Because why? The world needs more college-educated lunatics?
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
2017 PARENTS: "My daughter's got PTSD, anorexia, borderline personality disorder and suicidal ideation. Gonna spend $60,000 a year to send her to an elite university."
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
2017 ELITE UNIVERSITY: "She wrote her admissions essay about struggling with eating disorders, self-mutilation and gender dysphoria? Give her a scholarship!"
— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 25, 2017
Rhian Sugden Christmas Snaps
She's still fine.
Say cheeeeese in a Santa hat! 🙋🏼♀️🤶🏼
— Rhian Sugden (@Rhianmarie) December 26, 2017
Hope everybody had a happy/food/drink filled day! I DID! 🎄 pic.twitter.com/WXuBTz49dg
Page 3 star Rhian Sugden has already filled her Christmas stockings in sexy snap https://t.co/tgJA2wJ23c
— The Sun North West (@TheSunNW) December 23, 2017
Increase in Border Attacks, Smuggling, and Deaths at Texas’ Big Bend Region
Build the freakin' wall already, sheesh.
At LAT, "Could the Big Bend in Texas be the border's weakest link? Smuggling of drugs and migrants is on the rise":
At LAT, "Could the Big Bend in Texas be the border's weakest link? Smuggling of drugs and migrants is on the rise":
Two Border Patrol agents bent to study the sandy dirt like animal trackers — what they call "cutting for sign."More.
They didn't have to look far.
Just yards from the Rio Grande, Agent Lee Smith pointed to footprints and scraps of carpet. Smugglers tie carpet to their shoes in hopes of covering their tracks, he said. Smith followed the rough trail through thick brush, his fellow agent close behind, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a long gun.
They saw no one. But the agents sensed smugglers watching, waiting.
"They come right across. What's here to stop them?" Smith said.
Sometimes smuggler scouts cross on horseback: The muddy banks are pocked with human and horse tracks. The river here, about 60 miles east of El Paso, is just a few yards wide, one of the reasons Border Patrol agents in Texas' Big Bend region have seen troubling increases in smuggling, attacks on agents and migrant deaths in recent years.
"There's hundreds of these crossings just in our area of operation," Smith said. "The drug cartels, they own this part of the land. We have conceded large swaths of the border. There are areas where there are not agents for days."
He called the vast Big Bend "the absolute weakest link on the southern border."
The natural barriers beyond the river that made the landscape a stunning backdrop for "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood" and "Giant" were also supposed to protect it. Or at least that was long the assumption of U.S.officials. There's the river. There are mountains — the snow-covered Chinati, Chisos and Davis ranges.
There's the Chihuahuan high desert, the land full of prickly cat claw and temperatures that soar above 100 degrees on summer days and dip to below freezing on winter nights. And for many years, smugglers avoided Big Bend, that part of Texas where the border makes a gentle swoop south before swinging back north.
But smuggling routes shift according to the dictates of criminal organizations, often in response to border enforcement. In the late 1990s, border traffic moved from Southern California to remote desert stretches of Arizona; by 2013, it moved east again to Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the epicenter of migration and enforcement ever since.
But now new routes are opening up to the west, in Big Bend.
"As things in the Rio Grande Valley get tougher to cross, they're looking for other places, and this is a spot that over the past few years has become established for smuggling," said Border Patrol Agent Rush Carter, a spokesman for the agency in Big Bend.
Just as migrants once tried to cross the Arizona desert unprepared, Central Americans are arriving in Big Bend without cold weather gear, abandoned to the elements by smugglers. Migrants tell agents that smugglers advertise the area as an easy crossing, the least patrolled stretch of border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection divides the southern border into nine sectors. Big Bend is the largest: 135,000 square miles, 510 miles of river, a quarter of the entire southern border.
The sector stretches north to include 118 counties in Texas and all of Oklahoma. Yet it has the smallest staff of any southern border sector, about 500 agents assigned to a dozen stations and several highway checkpoints including one in Sierra Blanca, notorious for large drug busts. That's fewer agents than have been assigned to a single station in the Tucson sector, Smith said.
President Trump has promised to add 5,000 Border Patrol agents, potentially doubling Big Bend staffing, but with high turnover, agents said that they would still be spread thin.
With such a small staff, agents usually patrol alone, with hand-me-down technology from other areas, including radios so spotty agents have erected makeshift cell towers in the brush to boost reception. Sometimes they just yell.
They don't have observation towers along the border as in the Rio Grande Valley, and their single aerostat blimp hovering overhead, unlike those used in the Valley, is not equipped with infrared technology, Smith said...
Gift Wrapped Babes
Seen on Twitter:
🌀#ThrowBackSaturday #SexyXmas#BeautyBared#PicATweet🌀 pic.twitter.com/wJnVBUtXit
— ➰ ExquisiteBeauty ➰ (@breastlvr) December 24, 2017
Monday, December 25, 2017
Cash In Your Amazon Gift Cards at American Power!
Actually, Amazon sales have been rather modest this holiday season, but I absolutely appreciate every bit of support from readers.
Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And see especially, All-new Echo (2nd Generation) with improved sound, powered by Dolby, and a new design – Charcoal Fabric.
Also, Greatest Hits: Billy Idol (Amazon Music).
Plus, Women's Christmas Cute Reindeer Knitted Sweater Girl Pullover.
More, Kidorable Red Christmas Soft Hat/Scarf/Glove Set With Santa, Snowman, Reindeer and More.
Still more, Christmas Is Coming Ugly Christmas Sweater Men's Sweatshirt with Xmas Prop.
Here, Chefman Slow Cooker, All Natural / Chemical-Free / Glaze-Free Pot, Stovetop and Oven Safe Crock; the Only Nonstick Paleo Certified XL 5 Qt Slow Cooker.
Finally, Samsung DM82D/US DM82D, 82'' 1080p Full HD LED-Backlit LCD Flat Panel Display, Black.
BONUS: Mikhail Zygar, The Empire Must Die: Russia's Revolutionary Collapse, 1900-1917.
Thanks again and Merry Christmas!
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And see especially, All-new Echo (2nd Generation) with improved sound, powered by Dolby, and a new design – Charcoal Fabric.
Also, Greatest Hits: Billy Idol (Amazon Music).
Plus, Women's Christmas Cute Reindeer Knitted Sweater Girl Pullover.
More, Kidorable Red Christmas Soft Hat/Scarf/Glove Set With Santa, Snowman, Reindeer and More.
Still more, Christmas Is Coming Ugly Christmas Sweater Men's Sweatshirt with Xmas Prop.
Here, Chefman Slow Cooker, All Natural / Chemical-Free / Glaze-Free Pot, Stovetop and Oven Safe Crock; the Only Nonstick Paleo Certified XL 5 Qt Slow Cooker.
Finally, Samsung DM82D/US DM82D, 82'' 1080p Full HD LED-Backlit LCD Flat Panel Display, Black.
BONUS: Mikhail Zygar, The Empire Must Die: Russia's Revolutionary Collapse, 1900-1917.
Performance Car of the Year 2018 (VIDEO)
At Road and Track, the whole competitive review of 10 submissions for the year, awesome, "Road & Track Performance Car of the Year 2018."
And the winner is: "The McLaren 720S Is the Future."
And the winner is: "The McLaren 720S Is the Future."
Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Leftists
It is. Indeed, it is.
From Kurt Schlichter, at Town Hall, "Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Liberals, and Other Random Thoughts":
From Kurt Schlichter, at Town Hall, "Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Liberals, and Other Random Thoughts":
Ho ho ho, jerks!
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 25, 2017
|| Christmas Is the Perfect Time to Mock Liberals, and Other Random Thoughts https://t.co/YQUPRqmayD
When we gather together this Christmas, it’s going to be super-awkward since everybody is dead because Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Scam, repealed net neutrality, and cut taxes. The depredations of Genghis Khan, the Black Plague, and the repeal of the Obamacare mandate – these are pretty much the same thing. Santa Claus and all of our dreams are dead too.Keep reading.
On the plus side, since we are all dead there’s no one to make egg nog, which is the worst of all possible nogs.
No. Whoever invented egg nog is the second grossest human being ever who is not Lena Dunham, exceeded in grossness only by the first person being who thought, “Look, an oyster! I know. I’ll put that slimy thing in my mouth.”
The Democrats are the egg nog of American politics. Discuss...
Despite 'Star Wars' Surge, Movie-Going Audiences May Keep Fading
Well, I'm especially not going to see anything affiliated with Harvey Weinstein, and of course I won't see movies featuring any number of leftist stars, like Meryl Streep, George Clooney, or Matt Damon, to name a few.
I did enjoy "Hostiles," so it's not movies per se that are bogus. It's the far left politics for me. For everybody else? Well, who needs the multiplex anymore? Not too many, apparently.
At LAT, "Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming":
I did enjoy "Hostiles," so it's not movies per se that are bogus. It's the far left politics for me. For everybody else? Well, who needs the multiplex anymore? Not too many, apparently.
At LAT, "Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming":
Wow! They failed to recognize that Hollywood hatred toward @POTUS & his supporters had anything to do with the drop in sales. 🙄— Leslie Banks (@LeslieBanksUSA) December 24, 2017
Even with 'Star Wars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and... https://t.co/lhSjZqiqSp
American Conservatives are turning away from the false idols of the @NFL & #Hollywood. #NFL
— occupycorruptDC (@occupycorruptDC) December 24, 2017
"Even with '#StarWars' surge, moviegoing could hit 22-year low. Blame bad sequels, rising ticket prices and streaming"https://t.co/7fNBXcJksc pic.twitter.com/ipSyFDQiAB
Hollywood is celebrating the end of 2017 with astronomical sales from "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," which is on track to soon exceed $1 billion in global ticket sales and eventually become the biggest movie of the year. But that won't be enough to write a happy storyline for the industry.
Although 2017 movie ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada are expected to dip just below last year's record of $11.38 billion, the number of tickets sold is projected to drop 4% to 1.26 billion — the lowest level since 1995, according to preliminary estimates from studio executives.
The falloff in ticket sales can mostly be explained by a handful of movies that flopped, especially during the dreary summer season that posted the worst results in more than two decades. Even such massive hits as "Wonder Woman," "Thor: Ragnarok" and "It" couldn't make up for a lackluster summer lineup populated by rickety franchises ("Alien: Covenant") and poorly reviewed retreads ("The Mummy").
However, the long-term decline in attendance reflects systemic challenges facing the industry. Audiences are spending less time going to the movies and are consuming more entertainment on small screens and through streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon that are spending billions of dollars on original video content.
At the same time, while higher ticket prices have helped to offset attendance declines, they have made consumers pickier about what movies they're willing to go see. And those increasingly discerning consumers turn to social media and Rotten Tomatoes to decide what's worth their time and money.
"You cannot pull a fast one on the audience," said Greg Foster, chief executive of Imax Entertainment. "The tools that are available for consumers to decide how and where to spend entertainment dollars are so vast. Consumers know what works and what doesn't long before the product becomes available."
Challenges at the box office are helping to fuel a wave of media consolidation. Walt Disney Co. this month announced a blockbuster deal to buy entertainment assets from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion.
Murdoch's surprise decision to sell the bulk of his media empire was at least partly motivated by concerns about the future of the movie business in a world dominated by streaming, analysts said.
Cinema chains also are bulking up to better compete. Regal Entertainment Group, the nation's second-largest theater owner, last month agreed to sell itself to British theater company Cineworld for $3.6 billion.
For studios, the box office has become a land of princes and paupers, with a handful of movies and a couple studios increasingly dominating the business. As of Dec. 17, Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. accounted for 40% of domestic market share. In 2012, the top two studios (Sony and Warner Bros.) only took up 30% of the industry total.
Of the 165 wide-release movies this year, the top 20 claimed 51% of ticket sales in 2017, representing an increase of two percentage points from last year, according to estimates from distributors. Five years ago, the 20 biggest movies accounted for about 40% of annual grosses.
"It's a really binary business between the haves and the have-nots," said Jeff Goldstein, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.
Nowhere was that trend clearer than last weekend, when the animated Fox movie "Ferdinand" opened against Disney's "The Last Jedi."
The $111-million kids' film about a fighting-averse bull opened with a pitiful $13 million, due to a lack of audience interest in the story and competition from Pixar's hit computer-animated movie "Coco." By contrast, the new "Star Wars" opened with $220 million — nearly 17 times "Ferdinand's" debut.
Professor Jordan Peterson on the Lindsay Shepherd Affair
At Blazing Cat Fur, "Pronouns professor Jordan Peterson on the Lindsay Shepherd affair."
And more, at the Rebel:
And more, at the Rebel:
Gift-Wrapped Package of Horse Shit for Steve Mnuchin
Leftists are so disgusting.
At the Los Angeles Times, "Secret Service takes over investigation of package of manure sent to Steve Mnuchin's Bel-Air home."
At the Los Angeles Times, "Secret Service takes over investigation of package of manure sent to Steve Mnuchin's Bel-Air home."
Danielle Gersh's Christmas Forecast
She's a hot weather forecaster.
And it's nice weather for Christmas!
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles
And it's nice weather for Christmas!
Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
